


Christmas Time is for Family (Found as Much as Blood.)

by Everbright



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, M/M, Team Hot Dads, more mentioned, only tagged the characters with dialogue, so fluffy omg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everbright/pseuds/Everbright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stacker arranges everything he can think of so he can spend Christmas with Herc. Now he just has to ask Herc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Time is for Family (Found as Much as Blood.)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Capella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capella/gifts).



> THANKS MUCH to Vongchild, who took my VERY rough draft and ironed out the obvious grammar and spellcheck fail, and also to Tielan {our most wondrous challenge mod} for beating the emotional arc of the story into shape. Don't blame them for anything I changed after though! Also much thanks to my requester Capella, who gave me a giant blank slate to work with. I hope this fills you with happy holiday feels.

“Marshal Pentecost? Have you reached your quarters yet?”

Stacker closes the metal door behind him and allows himself to slump out of attention. “Yes Comms, I’ve reached them safely.”

“Right. I managed to get Ranger Hansen’s private line, shall I ping his console; or, uh, do you want to surprise him?” 

“None of that, Specialist Wysocki. Ping his console please.” He pulls his tie loose and sits down in front of the brand-new holotank console. If anyone is going to get sparkling new technology installed in their private quarters, Stacker supposes it should be the Marshal of the PPDC, but he’s still not quite used to using a holotank for tapping out personal emails and calling friends. And ‘friends.’

“Yessir, right away sir.”

The tank flashes into motion as Comms pulls up the video chat window and then encodes the call as ‘personal’ and ‘private.’ For good measure Stacker enters the protocol for high-security calls. Bad enough Comms thought there was something to smile about, better not give them any proof.

“I can take it from here Comms. Log off.”

“Yes sir! Have a nice conversation!”

Herc’s face blinks in in place of the hold screen. “Tell me he wasn’t giggling.”

“Sorry, can’t. Anchorage head of Comms has decided I ought to have someone ‘I can really talk to,’ and all her minions are just enchanted with the idea." Stacker stands a bit and shrugs his jacket onto the back of his chair, then sits back down and starts on his cuffs. “It’s not just you they’re being precious about. If I ask them to arrange a private call to anyone in the program within 5 years of me, I can *feel* them conspiring. ”

Herc makes a face as he leans back and folds his arms, his olive t-shirt sleeve flirting with a few of his faint and stutter-stop drive scars. “Well. See they don’t succeed in setting you up with anyone.”

“Don’t worry Herc,” Stacker relaxes completely and lets his chin rest on his left hand, “you’re the only one for me.”

Herc’s complexion betrays him with the barest flush along his cheek bones. “Likewise.” He clears his throat and lets the barrier of his arms drop. “So what’s on your mind? Everything okay at the Academy?”

Stacker turns his right hand up and shrugs a bit. “Going as well as it can at least. I can’t believe how entrenched some of this bloody nonsense is after only two classes. I’ve got martial arts training straightened out, at least. A cadet from Guangdong called the training room a 'Kwoon,' perhaps sarcastically? I adopted the term though. Gives it a bit more weight, makes it more like I’m letting them in on the deep secrets of defeating Kaiju that way. The Autumn class managed to understand that the techniques are for fighting Kaiju and not each other a lot more quickly than the class I took over last summer."

“I told you the martial arts program wasn't going to work for pilots. Glad you got it straightened out first,” Herc said.

Stacker straightens up and lets a smile curve his lips. “Mako’s been a big help, actually. Her family’s kenjutsu tradition is just different enough that she was tripping me up. The cadets that dropped by the Kwoon to put in extra hours saw how we were working together to sort out the differences, and you could see them communicating with their partners even just the next day.”

“Good thing they didn’t see me and Scott go at it then. Somebody would have ended up with a broken arm.”

“Ah yes, the ineffable ways of the Hansens, with your mystic but violent bond.” Stacker wiggles his fingers in a woo-woo gesture. “Speaking of, where are those two? Chuck just sent me an email the other day complaining about his engineering classes. Something about not getting to work on Lucky Seven? I thought he’d pop up behind you and try to talk to The Marshal about it.”

“Oi.” Herc rubs his hands into his face and grimaces. “Don’t worry about the engineering classes. Scott talked Chief Engineer Nguyen into taking the kid under her wing, since Chuck knows almost as much about Lucky Seven as one of her Corporals. Which I did not know until I caught Chuck in the machine shop, *helping.* If he’s going to be underfoot anyway, at least the crew can keep him safe."

"Anyway, Scott took Chuck out to the city for ice cream and a chat about asking for permission instead of forgiveness.” Herc turns his hands up and shrugs slightly. “I’m not sure it’ll take, but he’ll listen to Scott more than me.” 

“Maybe spending Christmas with his Mum’s folk, away from the Shatterdome, will settle him down. Is that still on?” Stacker consciously regulates his body language, leans back in his seat casually as he can. No need to show his nervousness.

“Not likely,” Herc snorts. “Maybe. Yeah, it’s just Scott and me this Christmas. Fucking shame, Lucky Seven down for an A.I. update over the holidays and Chuck scheduled to go inland for months. I might spend it at the ‘Dome, since Scott’s just going to install himself in a bar for the duration.”

“H’mm. Well, with the Autumn class finished, I’ve got time off too. Nothing I can do while the staff’s scattered over the Christmas hols.” Stacker drops it there, and hopes it's an attractive lure.

Herc sits up straight. “Oh? Gonna, uh, going to travel some then?”

“Yeah, I’m going back to see Mum, introduce Mako to her. I think Mum’s more excited to see her new grandchild than me, really.”

“Oh.” Herc keeps his face friendly, but his shoulders are too still. “So you won’t…” He coughs into his shoulder, blinking. “That’s great. I know you haven’t seen her practically since the program started.”

“Tamsin’s coming too. She’s going to spend Christmas Eve with us, then go up north to her Da’s place on Christmas day.” Stacker lets a sliver of a grin sneak across his features. "Tamsin was licking her wounds on Oahu, you know, didn’t want to ‘burden people’ with her diagnosis. But Mako demanded to meet her. They both shooed me out of the room and apparently had a great long talk about family and holidays and all that.” Stacker runs a hand over his head. “I wasn’t going to suggest going to England at all, since I didn’t know if Mako wanted spend New Year’s at Tanegashima or, or what, but they told me when I walked in the door that we were all going to England for Christmas. Just continuing the family tradition, I suppose. You can’t stop a Pentecost getting what they want."

“The mojo must be strong, it even works for Pentecosts by adoption.” Herc gives a little laugh. “That’ll be nice, the whole family together for Christmas. Like some kind of Christmas special.”

“Well hopefully The Doctor won’t show up. You know…” Stacker loosely rotates his right hand to gesture at the screen and looks Herc in the eye. No time for hiding now, only a direct attack would suffice. “You could come too.”

“What?” Herc blinks and twitches back a little. “Seriously?”

“Of course. Mum’s got enough room if we double up, and she’d love to meet you. She knows we have to keep it under the UN’s radar for now, but she’s wanted to meet you since I first told her about us.” Stacker does his best to look appealing, not bothering to hide the need for Herc by his side in his old manor. “How about it? Maybe you’d get to see what a real Christmas looks like, snow in the yard and everything?”

“Yeah.” Herc swallows and blinks, his eyes looking a little shiny. “Yeah, Stacks. That’d be nice.”

Stacker nods briskly. “Good. You can catch a PPDC supply plane from Sydney to San Francisco, and there’s a super-fast commercial jet that’s direct to Heathrow. You’ll only have to wait an hour to meet us coming off our plane.”

“You’ve got this all planned out, don't you?” Herc says, chucking even though his eyes are still the slightest bit shiny.

Stacker feels like his happiness is radiating off him, shining out of his skin like a beacon. For once, he doesn’t have to control himself. There’s no one to see his insides but Herc, so he lets the smile he feels stretch across his face. “Well, I’m a Pentecost. I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance if you said yes.”

Herc smiles his own true smile back when he says, “Stacker, I think I’d say yes to anything you asked.”


End file.
